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Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ)
Giotto · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267–1337)
- Date
- c. 1305
- Dimensions
- 200 x 185 cm
- Medium
- Fresco
- Location
- Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
The Lamentation is one of the frescoes Giotto painted on the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, a cycle of scenes from the lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ. It shows the dead Christ, taken down from the cross, mourned by his mother and followers.
A closer look
The Virgin cradles her son's head, searching his face, while Mary Magdalene holds his feet and John the Evangelist flings his arms wide in grief. Two hooded mourners seen from behind sit in the foreground, an unusually bold device that draws us into the circle. A rocky ridge slopes diagonally towards Christ's head, guiding the eye, and above, ten angels twist and wail in the blue sky. Giotto replaced the flat, golden figures of Byzantine art with solid bodies and real human emotion, opening the way to the Renaissance.